You just brought home your new Windows 8 computer — and it’s loaded with bloatware, trialware, garbageware and all kinds of stuff you don’t want. And we’re betting you either have McAfee or Norton installed and consuming your precious resources on that brand new computer of yours. Funny thing, Windows 8 already comes with anti-virus and anti-spyware –a it’s a pretty good one too; it’s called Windows Defender, known to Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7 users as Microsoft Security Essentials. It’s free, Norton and McAfee will give you a 90-day (or whatever) free trial, at the end of which, you’ll pay a price — and once you do, you’ll pay a price every year, until you finally remove whichever your computer manufacturer stuck you with.
We recommend you use PC Decrapifier to remove the crud and junk that most new computers come pre-burdened. PC Decrapifier is free program that scans your computer and shows you a list of the junkware installed and allows you to pick and choose what you want to remove — hopefully all of it.
So if you have a new computer, one of the first things you should download is PC Decrapifier. You can read more about it here. But be careful, the download buttons don’t download PC Decrapifier. So use this link to download the program.
PC Decrapifier is Windows 8 (32 & 64bit) compatible. It also works with 32 and 64 bit versions of Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7.
Is the new Windows 8 coming with bloatware? I really doubt that. I installed a fresh copy of Windows 8 Pro, and surprisingly it is so fast that I forgot about HP’s Quick Web, and had that removed!
We never said Windows 8 was coming out with bloatware — indeed we said that computer manufacturers were going to load up new computers with bloatware — and to use the method we cited to install a clean copy of Windows 8 — without all the bloatware installed by Dell, HP, et. al. The only computer company we know of that does not pre-installed bloatware crapware and trialware at this time is Vizio. Since Microsoft Security Essentials doesn’t work on Windows 8, Windows 8 comes with Windows Defender which looks very much like Microsoft Security Essentials. But you can be sure Dell, HP and some others will be pre-installing McAfee or Norton as they always have even though Windows Defender comes with Windows 8.
No Windows OS has come with bloatware — but many computer companies install bloatware along with Windows.
I did a fresh install of Windows 8 on my Windows 7 pc on a seperate parttition that I specifically created gor Windows 8. As far as I know it has no bloatware. It uses 1/3 of my ram on my pc while windows7 uses all because teh Windows 8 is 32 bit and the best part is Windows 8 boots literally 2x faster than Windows 7.
will this work with windows 7 ??
No – Windows 7 does not have this feature.
I just purchased a new computer with windows 7 installed with a lot of bloatware. Can I use that new feature of windows 8 after I do the upgrade from 7 to 8?
No. If you do you will wipe out all your programs and personal files which wouldn’t be on a brand new computer.
That computer is still unused, so I have no personal files on there…
Or should I just clean up the computer first and than upgrade to 8 before I start using it?
Thanks
This is noncence. This will restore from the factory partition which will have all the bloatware. You have to manually remove or buy win 8 and clean install.
K
You’re incorrect. The article does not say to reinstall Windows from the factory partition. Please go back and re-read the article.
My son just tried this on a new HP laptop, and it didn’t work. I wasn’t there so I don’t know exactly if he followed the directions properly, but I know he was looking at them on another computer at the time. Are there choices that’s possible to return to factory rather than a clean reinstall? He chose not to keep files as he had none on there. Thanks
The instructions work when followed exactly. Returning a new computer to its factory stat wouldn’t make much sense since it would reinstall all the HP trialware and bloatware.
Hey I followed the exact same instructions for the factory full reset feature on my Acer I bought last week and I still had all of the bloatware there too..
You didn’t use Windows 8 System Refresh, you used your computer’s “recovery” partition.
Did the same thing on my Acer netbook. Bloatware also came back.
Then you used he vender recovery option and not System Refresh — because vender bloatware (nor any windows program — only apps) are in System Refresh. I realize vendors make it confusing by putting “Recover my PC” in the mix but we never said to use that — we said to used Windows Refresh. Had you done that you would not have vendor bloatware — unless it was all vendor bloatware as apps and not Windows desktop programs.
Does this still require that one finds and installs custom drivers for their particular laptop model? If it does, then is this pretty much the zero cost method of reinstalling Windows 8?
Your article is incorrect. I just performed a Refresh (Refresh your PC without affecting your files) NOT “Remove everything and Reinstall Windows” and the bloatware is still present. Norton’s still on the desktop as is everything else that came with my 2 week old HP.
You’re correct. If you fail to remove the crapware from your system prior to doing a refresh they Windows will use the PC Manufacturers image to refresh the hard drive. As long as the image Windows uses is the manufacturers, you’ll continue find crapware reinstalled when you refresh. This was not Microsoft’s original intent and it again illustrates why PC users should insist that new PCs be delivered without junk and trailware.
What about custom drivers?
What are custom drivers and why would you need custom drivers for non-custom hardware? What computer manufacture uses custom hardware? I still say — if it is not broke, don’t fix it.
Customized drivers for the specific hardware ie. NIC, bluetooth, trackpad, HID. these are not always included with a vanilla windows install
You can (almost always) get these off of the manufacturer’s website.
Like all the other commenters that the authors slags off as ‘not following the instructions correctly’…it didn’t work for me either. Following the instructions to the letter. Just a waste of time.